Panel: U.S. Should Focus on Afghanistan

HARRY DUNPHY

Published 7:00 pm, Tuesday, February 11, 2003

Associated Press Writer

Threats posed by Iraq and North Korea should not deter the Bush administration from its efforts to rebuild Afghanistan and establish a secure democracy, leaders of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said Wednesday.

They also expressed concern about recent fighting involving U.S. troops in southern Afghanistan and warlords' continued control of parts of the country. The lawmakers again urged that 4,900-member international peacekeeping force to expand its operations beyond Kabul, the capital.

The committee chairman, Sen. Richard Lugar, said the U.S. ability to attract allies in the fight against terrorism will be enhanced if progress toward democracy continues in Afghanistan.

"Our commitment to Afghanistan is also a demonstration of how we will approach post-conflict Iraq," said Lugar, R-Ind. "American credibility is on the line in these situations and we must understand that failure to follow through could have extremely negative consequences on the war on terror."

The committee's senior Democrat, Sen. Joseph Biden of Delaware, said Afghanistan already has "dropped off the radar screen" in the United States and elsewhere.

"What level of commitment will the administration display once Afghanistan winds up behind Iraq and North Korea and whatever comes next?" Biden asked. He said warlords, drugs and terrorism remained a problem in Afghanistan "and we've made precious little progress on the three."

The State Department's coordinator for Afghanistan, David T. Johnson, and the Pentagon's assistant secretary of international affairs, Peter Rodman, reaffirmed the administration's resolve to remain engaged in Afghanistan.

Johnson said reliance on the warlords and their forces for security in the countryside would continue but eventually could undermine the goal of creating a stable and effective central government.

The objective, he said, is to train a national army and police force to extend the control of President Hamid Karzai's government beyond Kabul. The United States is working with France and Germany to train Afghan army and police forces.

In the meantime, Johnson said the international peacekeepers will have to maintain a presence in Kabul at least through elections in June 2004. He said the United States is not opposed to expanding the force's operations beyond Kabul, but that no country has volunteered.

Germany and the Netherlands took control Monday from Turkey of the 22-nation peacekeeping force, which first deployed on the streets of Kabul in December 2001 after the ouster of the Taliban regime. The Germans have proposed that NATO take over when its mandate ends in six months; otherwise, Spain or Canada could inherit the job.

In the Afghan countryside, Johnson and Rodman said the United States was working with the government to establish 50-to-60 member provincial reconstruction teams. They include American civil affairs specialists, engineers, medical personnel, linguists and U.S. regular and special forces.

Rodman described the teams as "a flexible, creative instrument to bring a transition from combat operations to stability operations." Johnson said the administration hopes the teams will enhance security and permit government authorities, international organizations and representatives of donor nations to go about reconstruction work in a more secure environment.